The Crowd
by cleverpun0
Summary: New experiences are scary. But every experience was new to somebody at some point. In the Lockdown locker room a newbie gets a quick peptalk from her teammate.


**The Crowd**

Firebrand continued fiddling with her striker bracelet. The back unit, the harness, the bracelet all felt so strange. She had been sitting on one of the benches almost the entire time the field was prepped; every time she got up and tried to walk the weight on her back plopped her back onto the chair, and she couldn't bring herself to try anyway after the 2nd fall. What was it going to be like once she pushed the button, when the jets flared? All of her friends had told her it was a rush, of adrenalin as well as speed, but none of them warned her what it actually felt like. Most had only gone so far as to say it was hard to describe.

"Couldn't have killed them to try anyway…" She thought to herself.

Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Nervous?"

As Firebrand looked over her shoulder she saw a knight, slightly taller than herself, equipped in top of the line gear- a snarb coat, crown of the fallen, every accessory slot filled- the same striker harness she had. The hud readout said her name was Umbriana, and she was pink team, same as Firebrand

"Oh, uhm. A little." Firebrand turned sheepishly back to the wall, starting to fiddle with her heart bracelets instead of her striker harness.

"It's not that bad you know. There's barely any kick to it. It the hit and runs that are tricky. In, stab, back out, in stab, back out. I pulled 1.5 Gs once when I was taking down this guard…"

"It's not that."

"Oh?"

Umbriana walked around her and sat down on the bench.

"Then what is it? The controls are easy too, almost like running down a hill sometimes though… This one time I…"

"No it's not that either. Well, I guess it is a little, they passed me over for striker training when my test scores were below average."

Firebrand looked up at the light that would signal when the field was ready.

"You can hear them can't you?"

"They're just prepping the field. Those crunching noises aren't any big deal."

"No, not that. The crowd."

Umbriana turned to look at the same light that Firebrand was staring at.

"I've been listening to them this whole time. That low, jumbled murmering. That's going to be going the entire match. And everytime I screw up the voices will flare into insults, and when our team loses it'll be the same but louder."

"They cheer too you know."

"I won't be doing anything worth cheering over."

Umbriana stood up.

"Well not with that attitude! You're here, in T3, you must've done something to earn that clearance. And my HUD says you're all five star; vog isn't my first choice, and only three star heart pendants, but I'm a little jealous of that A.S.I. med Acheron…"

"Heh… first thing I ever crafted, haven't got a U.V. since…"

"Look Brandy, you're letting yourself get all worked up over nothing." Umbriana jabbed a finger at two knights in skolver sets chatting at the other end of the room. "I've personally seen both those knights throw a tantrum when their team lost a match." She gestured at a third skolver-clad knight a few feet to their left. "And I've seen her throw a tantrum when her team was _winning_.

"The difference between a great player and a person who's having fun is the only thing that matters here."

"But can you hear the size of that crowd? Every loss is recorded in the global scoreboards, and…"

"Man who cares about scores, it's all about them krogmo coins! I mean, uh, having fun!"

Firebrand smiled, more at the bad delivery than the joke.

"Still helping newbies, eh, Bri?"

"You know me Hoover, can never resist a chance to use my trademark jokes."

"Yeah well, everyone gets sick of them eventually, even the newbs."

"Uh, Hoover, if you're on the Purple team should we really be talking?"

"Oh, you're one of them nervous types eh? If we couldn't talk to the other teams then I wouldn't be able to tell Bri how badly her sword swings kept missing me."

"Yeah and I wouldn't be able to point out how badly Hoover placed his R.S.S. again."

"You're just lucky the judges didn't foul you for jumping over my shards!"

"HA What judges! And they would've missed me anyway, they're not heat-seeking shards hoov: you have to actually point them at me if you want to hit anything."

As she finished her sentence the light in the middle of the wall turned on, blaring a soft yellow light on the room.

"Hmph, guess I'll just have to plant twice as many bombs in your path this game then." Hoover started walking toward the elevator on the other end of the locker room.

"C'mon Brandy, that's our cue."

Firebrand took Umbriana's hand, and as she stood up she noticed that the murmuring of the crowd had gotten louder once the light went on.

"It's just a bunch of devilites you know."

"And zombies…"

"Lol, who has trouble with zombies? It's just a crowd, and it's just a game."

As Firebrand and Umbriana started walking towards the elevator their other teammates joined them.

"Chi you being my guardian angel today?"

"Haha. You know I can never keep up with you Bri."

"Guess me and the newbie will be a pair then."

As the team stepped onto the elevator, Firebrand could hear one of the players on the other team complaining loudly about their team's equipment, though she missed the specifics.

As the side gates on the elevator rose and it began to descend, Firebrand could hear the talking of the crowd fade away as the elevator slowly ground down the elevator shaft. After a moment, they neared the bottom and she could hear the crowd slowly rise in volume. As she stepped into her team locker room, the sounds of the crowd morphed from haphazard conversation to excited whispers.

Her team started walked past the locker room door and towards the arena gates, telling orders to each other as they got into position to take the first points.

Firebrand walked up to the same gate that Umbriana was at. Hunched over, bracing for the start of the match, the knight turned to her and winked before looking back toward the trellis in front of them.

Suddenly the announcer's countdown cut through the crowd's noise, FIVE and as it ticked off each number, FOUR the crowd fell more and more silent.

THREE

TWO

ONE

START

The gates slid open, Firebrand turned on her booster, and the crowd erupted in cheers.

_They were right, it is a rush!_

* * *

Clarifications; In my iteration of SK there are some differences than in regular SK

Costume equips are allowed in LD

LD Matches take longer to start while monsters prep the arena

LD Shields require clearance and training to be issued to knights in the field. The LD versions are severely nerfed versions that are similar to the ones used to train knights for the real thing. Theyre like sports equipment- rugged but not designed for combat

Knights go from communal locker room to team locker rooms via elevator not gate. A light turns yellow when the field is prepped and green when equipment is triggered.

Costume Shields exist

Parrying blades work as weapons, but they're like a calibur with shorter range at best

Charge attacks are a result of knights focusing mist into their weapons (or chi if you wanna go that way).

Bombs still work the same (charge to place on the ground, fuse ticks) but all shard type bombs work differently to accommodate the 3D movement thing (they fire three rows of shards, explaining their ability to hit targets in the air). This story takes place before the RSS nerf.

Firebrand (orange) wears a Dusker coat (punkin bandolier) and a Firebreak helm (toasty maidband)

Umbriana (purple) wears a CotF (fancy glasses + Prismatic flower) and snarb coat (parrying blade + ghost aura + fancy valk wings)

Hoover (red) wears a Merc Demo suit (heavy bomb bandolier) and a heavy stranger hat

Chi (aqua) wears Ancient plate mail and a spiral demo helm (helm guards + plume + maedate-all regal)


End file.
